disembedding and re-embedding mechanisms

disembedding and re-embedding mechanisms

twin mechanisms operating especially in the modern world (GIDDENS, 1991):
  1. disembedding mechanisms are the ‘abstract systems’ (symbolic tokens – e.g. MONEY – and expert systems) that spread social relations across time and space and also produce insecurity and detachment from traditional social bonds;
  2. re-embedding mechanisms are the new forms of relationship and community (see INTIMACY) and new forms of politics (e.g. LIFE POLITICS) which appear as a response to the breakdown of traditional forms of social solidarity and an increasingly complex interplay between the local and the global.

See also RISK, TRUST, ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY AND INSECURITY, REFLEXIVE MODERNIZATION, GLOBALIZATION OF CULTURE.